Vic: “Dad: what’s the name of that guy who sings ‘Tears in Heaven‘?”

Me: “Eric Clapton, Mouse”

Vic: “How do you spell that? Eric…”

Me: “Clapton; T-R-P-M..”

Vic: “T-R-P-M. And then?”

Have to have an urgent talk to her teachers!

The phone rung this evening and, as usual, someone else got there before I did.

Which makes perfect sense.

As I never answer the phone at home: I can’t even remember the last time the call was for me. I’m like that, but that’s a different story…

So the phone rung this evening. As Vic was the only other person home at that time, later on I inquired about our caller:

Vic: “It was some woman claiming we’d just won a holiday in the Carribean!”

Me: “Oh WOW! GREAT! And what did you say?”

Vic: “Oh, I laughed my head off and put the phone down”.

Aaargh!!!!!!

But then: maybe it doesn’t help that we’ve been informed at least 3 times within the last 18 months about various horrendous amounts of money we’ve allegedly won in the Spanish Lottery….

I wonder..

I really wonder what made us think that Istanbul was a warm and welcome place in Winter.

If it wasn’t for our friend Wally, we would have spent the Christmas holidays surrounded by little fat men in fur boots:

Month	Average Sunlight (hours)	Temperature				Discomfort from heat and humidity	Relative humidity		Average Precipitation (mm)	Wet Days (+0.25 mm)
		Average		Record
		Min	Max	Min	Max		am	pm
Jan	3	3	8	-8	19	-	82	75	109	18
Feb	4	2	9	-8	22	-	82	72	92	14
March	4	3	11	-6	28	-	81	67	72	14
April	6	7	16	-1	30	-	81	62	46	9
May	9	12	21	3	35	-	82	61	38	8
June	11	16	25	8	37	Moderate	79	58	34	6
July	12	18	28	9	38	Medium	79	56	34	4
Aug	11	19	28	11	41	Medium	79	55	30	4
Sept	8	16	24	6	38	Moderate	81	59	58	7
Oct	6	13	20	1	33	-	83	64	81	11
Nov	4	9	15	-4	27	-	82	71	103	14
Dec	3	5	11	-9	23	-	82	74	119	18

Source: BBC Weather Center

Brilliant! Just what we need: 5 degrees Centigrade! Awesome!

Dear Sir or Madam,

We regret to inform you that we wish to cancel our reservation….

Every year it’s the same old story.

Days get shorter, the temperature drops a couple of degrees and the tip of DBW’s nose starts getting colder, and colder, and colder.

The part of the year she dreads the most is still far off, mind you: those couple of days between Christmas and the New Year, those days you normally spend curled up on the sofa in front of a crackling fire dozing in and out of a good book or groveling around the floor attempting to impress you kids by assembling their new Legos in such a way that they forget about the original plans.

DBW definitely does not: she has always dreamt of escaping the dreariness and freezing temperatures for a warm and welcome country, home to little fat men with muscular arms whose sole mission is to douse her in sweet-smelling lotions before re-arranging every fiber in her body.

So when she mentioned the great deal she had found, 5 days in Istanbul, from December 29 to January 2, I simply could not resist her pleading brown eyes yet again.

So forget about snow, drivel and icey patches: WE‘ll be revelling in the sun this year!

DBW: Can you teach me Photoshop?

Oh Jeeeez!!